Nudge Towards a New Path
by MrAwesome8
Summary: Hiashi & little Naruto end up talking atop the Hokage Mountain & Hiashi gives Naruto a new perspective to deal with his issues.
1. The Meeting

Disclaimer: All Characters belong to Misashi Kishimoto.

"Normal Speech"

 _'thoughts'_

Naruto is just about to begin the academy with the class of Sasuke, Hinata etc.

* * *

Hiashi Hyuuga was having one of the worst day of his life. His brother, Hizashi, has sacrificed himself to save him for his rash (but deserved) actions against the Kumo delegate, against Hiashi's wish. Now he has lost both, his dear wife & his brother.

"I'm going for walk, do not seek me out unless there is an emergency." Hiashi says to the guard as he leaves the clan compound to clear his mind. He's needs to contemplate, to think about the larger picture, the 'why' of his life.

* * *

"Get away from my stall, you urchin!" a shopkeeper yelled. His shout has drawn the attention of all nearby bystanders.

Hiashi witnesses the scene with an impassive gaze. The ever-lively Naruto just shrugged off the disdain of everyone & simply went away, grumbling how those candies sucked anyway. But Hiashi could feel the fluctuations of Naruto's chakra, however unrefined it was, he could feel that Naruto was distressed…& maybe scared too. Hiashi eyed the sweets Naruto was drooling over.

* * *

Naruto was frustrated & sad, he couldn't figure out just how & why his situation is so different than normal. He didn't wanted to cry not in front of these hateful eyes but sometimes he had no control over these tears.

"Might as well go somewhere nice & quite to relax!" he exclaimed, but he knew he was going to silently cry once he reached his destination.

* * *

Naruto found himself lying on top the Hokage Mountain, gazing on the starry-sky.

"Uzumaki Naruto" a voice called out. Naruto, startled, saw a man in white robes standing a few feet away.

"I swear I didn't do anything bad, I was just lying here for a few minutes." Naruto tries to defend himself from any unknown problem the man has with him.

"I know, I didn't accuse you of anything. I am Hiashi Hyuuga." Hiashi replies as he makes himself comfortable beside Naruto, sitting cross-legged elegantly. Hiashi admired the calm & scenic beauty of place. He didn't knew why he came here, after Naruto.

Nobody speaks anything for a few minutes, but Naruto couldn't take it anymore, here was a person that didn't shun him & even accepted his presence.

"Hi, I'm Uzumaki Naruto" Naruto said, with a big smile on his face, his misery forgotten.

"I know, I used your name earlier." Came a cool reply.

"Soo…What are you doing here?"

"This is a public property, Naruto. I don't need to explain anyone why I've come here."

Naruto made a face, clearly not satisfied with the answer. Hiashi decided to humor the boy.

"I need to clear my mind, I've had a rough day."

"Oh! You've come to the right place then. This is my go-to spot for relaxing too. No one to shout at me here. You can tell me about your rough day, I've had plenty so maybe I can help you out."

This jerked Hiashi out of his star gazing. _'This kid is far too young to talk like this, like suffering is normal in his life.'_

 _'_ _Maybe I can share my thoughts, this kid was unlikely to judge him.'_ Without mulling over the decision too much, Hiashi's mind was made up.

"A very important & dear family member of mine died today"

There was a pause for a few moments before Naruto replied, "I'm sorry but I don't know how to help with that…I didn't had a family"

"But if there is anything I can do to help you, you can tell me. I will try my best" Naruto added.

Hiashi had a wry smile on his face, "It's alright, Naruto. So tell me why did you came up here?"

Naruto was looking aimlessly over the village, he wasn't sure if he could or should tell this person about his problems, the small talk was nice & he didn't wanted to spoil anything.

"It's ok Naruto, you can tell me about it, I know about most of the things anyway."

"Then tell me why I'm treated differently & why my life sucks." Naruto replied with a downcast gaze, if this person knew then well otherwise he will know it sooner or later.

"…"

"Naruto, the reason people dislike you is beyond your control."

Hiashi could feel the sadness rolling off Naruto. "You can cry, if you want too. It's better to than to hold it in". Tears started streaming down Naruto's face, silently.

"Naruto, the fault is neither yours nor these people, they have the right to hate, but the target of their hate, you, is misplaced." This seemed to confuse Naruto & he calmed down a bit to understand Hiashi's point.

 _'_ _It's better to stay truthful & explain the situation rationally, otherwise Naruto may draw the wrong conclusions once he finds out the truth in unfavourable circumstances.'_ Hiashi thought.

"I'm going to advise you to not discuss our talk with anyone else, otherwise we not be able to meet again." Naruto nods hesitantly to Hiashi. Hiashi is not going to break any law, he's going to remain truthful but within legal boundaries.

"You'll just have to trust me won't ask me for further reasons when I say 'I can't tell you'."

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, & it was not meant that we should voyage far."

To say that Naruto understood a little bit of that statement was an overstatement "…oh."

"It's alright Naruto you are young & I don't expect anything from you right now." Hiashi said with a small smile.

"Alright Naruto, tell me what are confused & I'll direct you to the best of my ability."

"Soooo, I've been having a lot of problems at the academy…I try to follow everything that is taught to me correctly but I never get the results & always end up losing."

"Try to learn from the other kids, if you can, there is a possibility that some academy instructors are deliberately sabotaging you in their misguided attempt to take revenge for something you did not do. But it's alright, you can try to learn from other kids by watching them getting taught & you also try to learn in a spar, here you try to draw out the fight as long as you can if you are trying to learn. Finally, you can always watch your classmates spar & pickup something useful from there."

"Yes, makes a lot of sense. Thanks Hiashi-san." Naruto was really looking forward to his next academy day. _'I going to think over everything I saw the last time we had our Taijutsu session.'_

"& can you tell me how can I buy stuff from the market without any yelling & at fair price?"

"You can ask a friend to shop for you…" Hiashi paused at Naruto's dejected look.

"Or you can ask any acquaintance of yours & pay them some compensation, this compensation should be less than all the losses you would've incurred if you had gone shopping yourself. Although this still costs you more than normal."

Currently, the only person Naruto could think of, for this plan were Tuechi & Ayame _'hmm…I need to think of something to make it work.'_

"& how can I make friends, you know, with my circumstances & all that…" Naruto mumbled out unsurely.

"Well, for starters, don't give anyone any reason to dislike you. If you're unsure if you can keep that from happening regarding a particular person then try not to engage. Whoever you interact with, try to look for the cause behind their argument, don't take it personally."

"I've heard about your desire to become Hokage, is that correct?" Hiashi asked with a raised eyebrow.

Naruto bashfully, "Yes! I'm going to become the greatest Hokage ever & then these people will have no other choice but to acknowledge me."

"Well then, let me tell you Naruto, that the one who is acknowledged by everyone becomes the Hokage, not the other way around. They need to acknowledge you for who you are before you become the Hokage."

"These are all very simple but very important points that I've told you."

"Thank you Hiashi-san." Naruto said with all the sincerity he could muster. This talk had enlightened him to many aspects which he had not considered before.

"When can I meet you the next time? Hiashi-san. I want to keep updating you with my progress." Naruto asked eagerly, he finally had a person he could talk to about everything.

"I'm afraid that's not possible for a long while, I'm a busy man with many duties & It's not often I venture out without any purpose, like I did today."

Naruto was distraught _'He is the same as the old man Hokage.'_

"But don't worry, I will keep myself updated on you progress & I will come to meet if I have some time to spare." This gave Naruto some hope & he was determined to make progress so that whenever they will meet next, Naruto will have some great news to share.

"And you shouldn't have free time either, because while the points I made may make the road ahead seem simple but it will be really difficult & challenging & for you to Hokage you will need to put in a lot of effort. Don't be lax in you effort Naruto, always strive for the best. Anything less will make your life less interesting."

Hiashi gently pulls out a wrapped packet & hands it to Naruto, "& take this Naruto, it was nice talking to you, the view here was soothing. Good night." Haishi starts to stroll back to the Hyuuga Compound at a leisurely pace.

"Wait, one last question, I really suck at ninjutsu whereas my classmates all have learned their special clan techniques, what should I do?" Naruto asked before Hiashi could disappear down exit.

"Chakra is a fascinating thing, Naruto. Experiment with it & you may discover your own special technique." Hiashi answered with a light laugh & disappeared down the exit.

 _'_ _Huh! He didn't gave me any cool techniques…'_ Naruto thought, a little annoyed.

 _'_ _But Chakra is a common ingredient for all ninjutsu techniques, I will take Hiashi-sans advice & experiment with it to make my own cool jutsus.'_

With ninjutsu out of the way, Naruto focused his attention back to the wrapped package & opened it.

"Wow, no way! This is the same candy I was looking at earlier this evening. I only wanted one but this is the whole packet of them." Naruto was elated, but putting Hiashi's advice into practice, Naruto thought why Hiashi would gift this to him.

 _'_ _Maybe I said something that made him happy or there is some ulterior motive, which seems highly unlikely.'_ But putting that thought aside for now, Naruto took a candy out & started indulging.

 _'_ _I can't wait for tomorrow, I've got lots of things to do!'_


	2. Finding First Steady Steps

Disclaimer: All Characters belong to Misashi Kishimoto.

"Normal Speech"

 _'thoughts'_

Fast Forward three years: Naruto & fellow students are in their final academy year.

* * *

It is chaos, yes, Naruto was sure that is the right word, chaos. His life is chaos & Naruto relished in it. He was just going with the flow as long as he liked the outcome & saw any opportunity to enjoy it. Make no mistake, his life was not sunshine & butterflies at all, he still received those disdainful glares from the villages but now some of them were turning into confusion while some didn't knew how to act altogether. It was going great amidst this chaos & Naruto only wished there were no rude surprises down the road.

Naruto's creative mind found Hiashi's advice when they first met, simple & confusing. They were vague sometimes while sometimes Naruto found them surprisingly straightforward. He met with Hiashi a few times, three or four times, in the past three years. The man is actually a pretty important guy, very important actually. He didn't mince his words & talked with directness which Naruto really liked. Unlike Old-man, the Third Hokage, he comes out with everything straight, you like it or not, or rather Naruto liked it or not. Diplomacy serves you good if you're a clan head, but Naruto found he was one of the few people who interacts with a 'no-bullshit' Hiashi. He questioned Hiashi why is this the case, Hiashi reasoned he has full faith in the trust he placed in Naruto, Yamanaka cannot probe Naruto's mind because of his unique circumstances & whatever he told him wouldn't necessarily damage Hiashi, if Naruto ever decided to turn on him, of which Naruto assured him with every ounce of conviction & seriousness he could muster, that it will never happen even if he has to put his life on the line, when Hiashi wouldn't release his dead eye stare, Naruto added another statement to his argument

"Unless of course, If there are legit reasons for doing so, like you turning on me first."

Hiashi got a little smirk on his face. _'Naruto can't afford to be stupid & naive, especially in this world.'_

"Well then Naruto, I do hope you investigate those reasons before acting."

* * *

Naruto grew up alone, in a shinobi village where a major part of populace didn't liked him very much. Consequently, he was forced to grow up quickly, understand how the system works. Obviously, he brought up his deductions of how the system works & Hiashi either validated or corrected his learning with his own. All in all, Naruto at the age of just 13, understood how grim the world actually is & how these 13 year-soon-to-be-genins have a bleak future if they don't grow up & acknowledge the danger.

Naruto's life was a little different of course. He was playing 'Shinobi' on a higher difficulty level. He had no protection since early childhood & even where things were supposed to be nice, like Konoha, his home village, it was not the case. Naruto understood it & acknowledged it, & Hiashi knew Naruto did, hence the trust he had in Naruto.

Hiashi had grown to like the boy, but he didn't show it, he just let himself be 'Normal'. He didn't hide anything & didn't tried to soften the impact of his words, if he didn't wanted to tell him something, or rather couldn't tell due to 'external' complications, then he flat out says so without trying to manoeuvre his way around it. He liked the simplicity by which Naruto took his words, no drama, unlike his public persona. Naruto has certainly grown, or rather, was forced to grow quickly. They talked about everything, village politics, relationships between various villages & lands, clans. The only subject they haven't talked about is Jinchuuriki, but Hiashi knew no matter how much the Hokage tries to conceal it, Naruto was bound to know, sooner rather than later. Although it was quite a high risk bet, but Hiashi was confident that Naruto had enough rational to think & talk carefully about the subject when the time comes rather than go on a rampage. _'Yes Hiashi, maybe you meeting him have averted that fate, hopefully Naruto's early maturity will help him see his situation more clearly.'_

* * *

Now back to Naruto's life. The personality he put out on the show in public was that of a jester, a helpful jester to be specific. He pranks people from time to time but they are all light hearted which can be reverted with a little effort, which is guided by him. He offers to help the victims without telling them that it was him who was the prankster. According to Naruto, all the prank victims deserve it. But in the end he offers them help, or guides them on how to revert the changes. Most of ignore him of course but take his advice without acknowledging it. But Naruto had learned earlier, don't hold any expectations for anyone. So he doesn't mind in the end, he gets his little silly revenge but with an added bonus, some of the people that do acknowledge his gestures of help often end up changing their disdainful behaviour a little bit toward a neutral behaviour. Though Naruto guiltily admits that it's kind of manipulative, _'But hey, Hiashi-san told me that their hate is misdirected so it's not like they have a valid reason to hate me!'_

Academy is another interesting story. As ususal baised instructors are ready to put Naruto down every chance they get, the only beacon of hope is Iruka-sensei. Iruka had an eye opening incident with Naruto early on when Naruto was around 4. That incident made him realise his prejudice for something Naruto had no control about & as a fellow orphan Iruka felt a strange kinship with Naruto. Iruka tries to make sure that everyone from staff to children hold no bias against Naruto & Naruto appreciates that. With biased teachers teaching him incorrect forms, katas & wrong jutsu techniques, Naruto resorted to learning from experience, including other's experience of course. He watched every spar very attentively & tries to drag out his own fight in hope of learning his opponents' style, so now after 3 years his Taijutsu style is rough mixture of form of Uchiha, Hyuuga & other clan forms whose forms he managed to dissect. But this crude mixture of style was very ineffective against any better than average opponent. Apparently, every distinct style was based on some core strengths & switching between the styles or rather, combining elements of distinct styles would leave many holes & gaps that any decent opponent will be able to exploit, more often than not, Naruto's spar ends with a crushing defeat for him. But sometimes that unpredictability of his style would earn him a bonus victory when the opponents wrongly anticipate his moves. He knew he lacked a proper taijutsu base, so Naruto has been asking Iruka's help in his free time to cover the ground, _'Maybe with a good foundation I will be able to incorporate those various elementary things that I've picked until now into a much more cohesive style? Hmm.'_

Ninjutsu was an entirely different matter, as per Hiashi's advice Naruto began experimenting with chakra 3 years back. The start was not promising, as literally nothing was happening & if Naruto didn't die of chakra exhaustion then he was sure he will die of boredom. But one day, Naruto had a eureka moment when he began channelling chakra while practicing taijutsu drills & voila strange things happened! Feeling a surge of controlled energy in his limbs he struck a wooden post & it broke into splinters _'Woah! What the hell!'_ But Naruto didn't knew about a certain fox in his body so he wasn't able to deduce that it could've been that bijuu chakra that enhanced his capabilities.

"So I've seen almost every shinobi using elemental jutsus, fire, water, earth…come on, anything, turn this chakra into those elemental forms!"

Naruto was frustrated at the lack of elemental chakra, but he at least knew how to augment his strength & capabilities to a little degree _'I should master this, so that at least I'll have something to work with when I'm in a fight.'_

Iruka helped out again, showed Naruto how to properly channel the chakra through his hands & feet & how to channel it for a jutsu.

"But those three academy jutsus are still a priority Naruto, don't forget to work on you Bunshin(Clone) jutsu!" he warned after addressing Naruto's queries.

But still Naruto worked to get ANY elemental touch to his chakra based techniques, _'How awesome it will be if enhance my capabilities using elemental chakra or better yet perform elemental techniques without any hand signs at all'_ Naruto didn't knew any technique or had any know how to create a hand-signs based jutsu from scratch so his best bet was to create a technique which requires no hand signs at all, _'How hard can it be? I already know how to augment my strength using chakra'_ …it was very hard.

But finally after two years, his efforts actually resulted in a major breakthrough.

"Oh my god! WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST DID!"


	3. Gaining a friend

Naruto looked at the destroyed wooden stump in astonishment. _'Finally! SOMETHING happened after all the weird things I've been trying since god knows when.'_

 _'Okay Naruto, just stay focused & try to replicate what you just & understand what happened.'_ Naruto told himself.

He concentrated his chakra again, blue streaks of chakra began to cover his body. Naruto focused on his right arm again, trying to generate the same effect that destroyed the wooden stump, but to no avail.

 _'What's happening! Oh no, please don't let it be a onetime thing, please!'_ Naruto focused every ounce of chakra he could muster to his arm.

Suddenly he felt a rush of power, like before, he felt refreshed, his senses enhanced. He could also feel a chakra signature nearby, trying to hide itself, but Naruto could notice it due to his now heightened senses. _'Maybe…no, definitely, someone is there, watching me.'_ He noticed. But he had other important matters to be concerned about.

Naruto's hand was covered in red chakra streaks along with blue ones. There was a third element circling his right arm, blade like streaks of wind. Some of the sharp wind streaks were leaving cuts on his arm but they were healing rather quickly to be a problem.

 _'This stings a little but I'm sure this is what led to the destruction of that wooden stump.'_ He decided to try again on another target struck in the ground.

He threw a textbook punch, just before the strike he increased the chakra supply to his arm.

A second wooden stump lay on the ground, obliterated by the sheer force & messy cuts, many splinters & chunks of that stump lay scattered on the attack site.

Naruto was a little tired, he pushed quite a lot chakra in the last attack. He noticed that his arm could eat a large amount of his chakra when it was ready to attack, this wasn't possible before. Naruto had experimented many times before & there was always a limit on the amount of chakra he could push into his attacks, but those last two attacks, whatever that he did, could use large amount of chakra, if he wanted to.

Naruto just laid on his back, looking up at the sky, with a big smile on his face. _'Finally some damn progress, of course I'm still lacking severely & I can't use this as it is…But I finally have something to work with…& I have many ideas that I can't wait to test & put into practice.'_

While Naruto was catching his breath & basking in the joy of making some crucial progress, Kakashi was still trying to process what he witnessed. He checked up on Naruto whenever he had some free time to spare, this came up as a habit when Lord Third used to assign him to watch-over Naruto when he was ANBU.

Kakashi knew of Naruto's pranks, his academy progress & his interactions with Hiashi a few times. He didn't knew what they talked about or what the 'Real' Naruto thinks like. But he was proud of the way Naruto was handling his situation, he has improved the view of general populace, he was handling the academy quite well despite being hindered by some biased instructors, & here he was trying to catch up to other prominent students & improve, all on his own, without any major external help.

Kakashi did wanted to help his sensei's son but refrained from doing so, because he had lost everyone who was close to him, all are dead, & if he developed a close bond with Naruto, who ends up dying next, it will break the camel's back & Kakashi wasn't sure he could handle that.

' _No, I can't bond with him…but maybe I can watch from afar & make things easier for him without him knowing about it.'_ Kakashi haven't figured out how to achieve the last part though as Naruto was always wary of the unknown helpers as many of them turned out to be traps.

 _'And it's better that he makes progress all on his own, I know he can do it… & it will make him more prepared for the future, as a shinobi, the more self-reliant you are the better.'_

Now back to what Kakashi just witnessed, the boy was attempting to bypass the hand signs & he unconsciously used a little Kyuubi's chakra to make it work. It wasn't ground-breaking by any means, Naruto managed to use a miniscule amount wind chakra in combination with a little Kyuubi's chakra along with own chakra & shredded the wooden post dug in the ground, quite simple on paper but effective.

 _'I don't know how he can use Kyuubi's chakra in such small amount, why wasn't he overwhelmed by it. Maybe it has something to do with the seal or the fact that he used his chakra in conjunction with Kyuubi's chakra. This is strange.'_

' _Well, whatever the case, if he does manage to develop his no-hand-sign style…then it will be very interesting, to say the least._ '

Kakashi noticed that Naruto fell asleep while lying on the ground & he had some other matters to attend to. _'Bye Naruto, until next time!'_ Kakashi shunshined out of the training ground.

* * *

Sasuke was pissed today, today was turning out to be his worst birthday ever.

Someone had stuck a note on his back during the rush hour lunch of the academy saying "HUG ME, ITS MY B'DAY TODAY!" & all hell broke loose. The fan girl horde was especially motivated to make his day miserable, he couldn't catch a moment's peace.

Sasuke had strong suspicions about who was responsible for all the drama. _'He will pay'_ Sasuke thought bitterly. There was only one way Naruto could've known it was Sasuke's birthday today, he saw Sasuke being greeted by the very old shopkeeper in the morning, Sasuke's mom had friendly relations with the old lady & she knew Sasuke's birthday, & Naruto saw the interaction.

Just as the academy came to a close, the fan girl horde came right for Sasuke. He saw Naruto laughing in the corner of the classroom along with Kiba & a few other boys. Sasuke decided to go for the jugular of the problem, heading straight for Naruto.

Naruto saw Sasuke approaching rapidly & decided this will be the best time to hightail out of here.

Sasuke had to admit that Naruto was fast & agile, but he was no slouch either. _'The idiot will pay for his shenanigans.'_

It was dusk & both, Naruto & Sasuke were running along a small river bank.

"Stop chasing Sasuke, do have any prove to support your allegations!" Naruto called back.

In response a huge fireball came barrelling towards Naruto, which he barely dodged.

"Woah! That was dangerous, what the hell is wrong with you!" Naruto finally faced Sasuke & stood his ground.

"You are my problem, you ruined today."

"Come on Sasuke! You were in a sour mood when I saw you this morning. It's your birthday today, so I thought why not make it a little exciting so that you could forget about whatever it was that was making you dwell in angst. It's not like anyone is trying to beat you up on your birthday unlike mine." Naruto said the last part almost inaudibly & melancholically.

Sasuke heard the last part but decided to not comment on it.

"You don't know about me, Naruto. You don't know how I feel. You should not try to fix something you have no idea about."

"I understand Sasuke. I'm sorry, I didn't wanted to ruin your day. Despite my actions, I still wish you a happy birthday. And if you need someone to talk about your issues then I'm always available." Naruto said sincerely & got ready to leave to get some ramen.

Sasuke saw how sincere Naruto's words were. Sasuke knew a lot about Naruto, partially because roaming around alone in village he saw him often. Sasuke saw how villagers used to shun Naruto & how Naruto tackled it, how he was treated at the academy, but Naruto didn't blamed anyone & tried to make it work despite all the handicaps imposed on him & Sasuke respected him for that. Today always used to serve as a painful reminder for Sasuke about how much he has lost as he relived those joyous memories when he used to celebrate his birthday with Father, mom & Itachi, & to be honest Naruto's actions did managed to take his mind off that painful reminder.

"Hold up idiot, I'm not letting you off the hook that easily." Sasuke called out to Naruto.

Naruto turned back with sheepish small smile "What? Have some mercy Sasuke, it's your birthday today!"

"Oh! I got an idea, why don't I treat you to some ramen. Trust me it's really good." Naruto presented his offer gleefully.

"After all you've put me through today…I guess, it's only fair." Sasuke said, looking to the sunset uninterestingly.

Naruto was dumbfounded, _'What? He agreed?'_ It took some time for Naruto to digest the fact. This is the first time Naruto will have someone to eat with. He had seen everyone hanging around in a group, enjoying themselves while having a meal, but Naruto never had that luxury, He would watch everyone with a small smile on his face, trying to enjoy in their enjoyment, he ate his ramen slowly to pace it with others, to make himself feel like he belonged with them & trying get the same feeling one would feel when sharing a meal with one's friends. But now he won't have to pretend now, Naruto was over the moon.

"Don't stand & stare at me weirdly, idiot…lead the way."

"Of course, Sasuke, sorry I was just a little surprised…You're going to love it, we will properly enjoy your birthday!"

Both walked side by side toward the Ichiraku Ramen, with Naruto constantly emphasising how much fun they are going to have & Sasuke walking quietly…with a small smile on his face.


End file.
